September 25, 2013

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Arrives At Sprint October 4

Samsung showed off its 5.7-inch Samsung Galaxy Note 3 earlier this month along with its much anticipated Galaxy Gear smartwatch.

Now Sprint has announced the phablet will be available on October 4 for $349 with unlimited data for the life of the device. The unlimited data guarantee was previously announced at the IFA conference by the carrier, but it has only now announced pricing and availability.

The South Korean smartphone maker has also made waves this week in announcing a Galaxy S4 smartphone in gold to counter Apple’s golden iPhone 5S. Samsung fans in South Korea will also be some of the first to pick up a smartphone with a flexible display when Samsung releases a new, unnamed smartphone there next month.

The Galaxy Note 3 is an upgraded version of the previous Note 2 both in terms of the size of the screen and the internal components buried within. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 2.3 GHz 800 processor, which was shown off during this year’s CES in Las Vegas, gets an introduction in the Note 3. Samsung managed to keep the width of the screen the same while expanding it vertically to 5.7 inches, not quite Samsung’s largest display, but close. The stretched screen now has a resolution of 1080 x 1920. The battery powering this screen and all its internals is only slightly improved, and Samsung says users can expect about 10 to 11 hours during normal use. The Note 3 will also run the latest version of Android, 4.3, a notable point as this is what will power the Galaxy Gear smartwatch.

As it stands, only the Galaxy Note 3 and new Tab 10.1 can pair with the $299 Galaxy Gear. The small 1.63-inch watch acts as a remote for these two large devices, playing music, making notes and reading messages. Samsung claims Galaxy Gear can only last one day on a single charge, meaning wearers will have to set their watches to charge every night alongside their phones and phablets. Many believed Samsung’s announcement of the Galaxy Gear was meant as a one-up to Apple who is only rumored to be creating a watch of its very own.

Also in the news, Samsung's Gold Edition Galaxy S4 (also available in pink) has been shown off in social media outlets in the United Arab Emirates, and it so far doesn’t seem likely that these phones will be available anywhere else. This announcement comes only days after Apple made its first colored iPhones available globally, subsequently selling nine million total in the first three days.

Lee Don-joo, a president of Samsung's mobile business, has told Reuters and other news sources that the gold S4 isn’t the only special phone available with a limited release. At a Galaxy Note 3 event in Seoul, Lee Don-joo said: “We plan to introduce a smartphone with a curved display in South Korea in October.”

Samsung has been working on these curved displays for years now, all the while showing off their progress at events such as the Consumer Electronics Show.